In 2010, the Citizens United ruling gave corporations the ability to pour unlimited sums of money into elections. The imbalance created by this dark money was a central theme of the Bernie Sanders campaign, and the belief that big businesses and wealthy individuals are buying our elections is now well-established.
Looking at the most recent expenditure reports for the 2018 Hawaii primary election, that belief seems to hold true. Across the board, big spenders came out ahead on election day.
Of the 34 contested Democratic Party state House and Senate elections, 22 candidates outspent their opponents by at least $15,000. All 22 won.
The price for the average House seat was $37,000 and the average Senate seat sold for $89,000. All three House and Senate incumbents to lose this election cycle didn’t come close to spending that amount. All were outbid by the winning challenger.
Of the three Honolulu City Council races with primary elections, in each case, the candidate who received the most votes spent at least $140,000. Councilman Trevor Ozawa’s financiers spent $290,000.
Gov. David Ige’s funders paid more than $2 million for his race, while state Sen. Josh Green’s and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s backers spent around $1 million each. All three outspent their challengers by at least $200,000 and won.
We’ve created a system where money buys elections. Those who want to serve and represent their communities first need to acquire tons of cash. Without it, there is almost no chance of success.
This has left us with a limited supply of candidates both willing and able to challenge incumbents. Out of the 64 Senate and House seats up for election this year, only 34 drew challengers. Many of the uncontested seats are held by incumbents who have between $100,000 and $300,000 in campaign reserves — more than enough to scare off potential competition.
Factor in that we live in a state with one dominant political party, and almost all of our elections go either uncontested entirely, or are won by those who spend the most money. And that’s, frankly, bad for democracy.
Looking at things through this lense, it becomes apparent why an almost entirely Democratic Legislature has failed to deliver on many of the goals outlined by the Democratic Party itself: things like livable wages, universal access to housing and a properly funded education system. The power does not rest with the people, but with monied interests that see no need to realize those goals.
The membership of the Hawaii Democratic Party, however, does support these goals and recognizes the effects of money in politics: Its 2018 convention delegates passed a resolution urging our representatives to establish a fully publicly-financed election system. This system would allow any candidate to spend up to a certain amount of public funds for their campaign, as long as they get enough signatures from their constituents. These funds would give all candidates a chance to fairly compete with monied interests. This program would cost less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the state budget, and would remove the giant “For Sale” sign from above our state Capitol.
The Democratic Party sent out a questionnaire to all Democratic Party candidates asking for their stance on this proposal. Ige supports it, along with 7 out of the 11 Democratic Senate nominees who responded and 20 out of the 28 responsive Democratic House nominees.
Will these candidates stick to their pre-election commitments and move this necessary change forward during the 2019 legislative session? Or will we be discussing how much seats were sold for again in 2020?
Will Caron, a millennial from Kahaluu, is a member of the Palolo Neighborhood Board and interim co-chair of the Hawaii-based advocacy group, Young Progressives Demanding Action (ypdahawaii.org).
